Social Innovation: An Imperative Need

Abstract

According to Herbert Simon—the first and only Nobel prize winner in the area of management studies—the human mind cannot function on more than a few consciously considered informations at the same time. What this means is that our thinking, our decisions and action are in fact based on a few actively considered informations, which happen to be around. A large number of assumptions, convictions and impressions, which are unconsciously taken into account, are also determinant, although they remain unquestioned. There is nothing wrong with this. We could hardly function otherwise, especially when we have to act under pressure of time. But there is an obvious danger: the world seems to change more quickly than it used to (and this is an understatement), and the risk is that some of these unquestioned (because unconscious) assumptions on which we act are no longer true. Since human nature tends to avoid the threat of change we may persuade ourselves to select for conscious consideration only the “safe” informations, those which are not likely to change, however marginal they may be. This is what the French scholar Louis Armand called “Entrer dans I'avenir à reculons”.

Citation

Talpaert, R. (1984), "Social Innovation: An Imperative Need", Management Decision, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 3-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb001347